1. Issue-Oriented Resources: Congressional Research Service Reports, InfoMine, Internet Public Library, Think Tanks, and ProCon.org Paul Barron barronpb@marshallfoundation.org Director of Library and Archives George C. Marshall Foundation Lexington, VA 24450 Revised November 2011: Copies may be made for educational use only.

2. WVPT 2012 NTTI 2 2 Objective of the Presentation Introduce Congressional Research Service Reports, Internet Public Library, INFOMINE, ProCon.org, and Think Tanks  IPL and INFOMINE – Evaluated resources Define nonpartisan Review the scope of the sources Demonstrate a Google site-limited search for CRS Reports and topical issues on think tank sites Provide access to Portaportal for sources of CRS reports and think tanks

3. WVPT 2012 NTTI 3 3 What is the Congressional Research Service? A nonpartisan objective research think tank for the U.S. Congress.  Not partisan; free from party affiliation, bias, or designation http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/

4. WVPT 2012 NTTI 4 4 Mission of the Congressional Research Service “The unique CRS mission is to provide comprehensive, authoritative, and reliable analysis, research, and information services that are timely, objective, nonpartisan, and confidential, thereby contributing to an informed national legislature.” The Congressional Research Service FY2006 Annual Report http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/CRS06_AnnRpt.pdf

5. WVPT 2012 NTTI 5 CRS Annual Report 5 http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/about/crs10_annrpt.pdf MAJOR ISSUES OF 2011 1.Health Care Reform 2.Reform of Financial Sector Regulation 3.Offshore Drilling. (Source of Debate Topics?)

6. WVPT 2012 NTTI 6 6 CRS A nalytical D ivisions ( www.loc.gov/crsinfo/research) American Law  Legal questions that may emerge from the congressional agenda Domestic Social Policy  Domestic policy and social program issues Elementary and Secondary Education Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade  U.S. foreign, defense, trade policy issues, and translations Government and Finance  American government and politics, the structure and administration of Congress, the economy, public finance, and financial services Resources, Science and Industry  Natural resources and environmental management, science and technology, and industry and infrastructure

7. WVPT 2012 NTTI 7 7 CRS Products: Reports Purpose of a report - Clearly define the issue in the legislative context Form of reports  policy analysis,  economic studies,  statistical reviews, and  legal analyses

8. WVPT 2012 NTTI 8 Example of a CRS Report Title and Summary Pages

9. WVPT 2012 NTTI 9 Example of a CRS Report Footnoted Sources and Author Contact Information

10. WVPT 2012 NTTI 10 There are CRS Report on K-12 Education.

11. WVPT 2012 NTTI 11 Question: how would you find … … the CRS Report RL30217, Performance-Based Pay for Teachers?

12. Highly Classified Information on Teacher Pay WVPT 2012 NTTI 12

13. WVPT 2012 NTTI 13 CRS Products Distribution Policy “I have concluded that prior approval should now be required at the division or office level before products are distributed to members of the public. This policy is effective immediately." CRS Director Daniel P. Mullohan "Distribution of CRS Products to Non-Congressionals" http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/crs032007.pdf http://tinyurl.com/3cqjt5

14. INFOMINE Scholarly Internet Resources WVPT 2012 NTTI 14 http://infomine.ucr.edu/

15. INFOMINE Search Results WVPT 2012 NTTI 15

16. Library of Congress Tracer Bullets WVPT 2012 NTTI 16

17. Library of Congress SCIENCE TRACER BULLETS WVPT 2012 NTTI 17 http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/

18. Internet Public Library WVPT 2012 NTTI 18 http://www.ipl.org

19. The Immigration Debate in the Classroom WVPT 2012 NTTI 19

20. WVPT 2012 NTTI 20 University of North Texas Libraries http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR/ Scroll down to view 19 categories of “Browse by Subjects”

21. WVPT 2012 NTTI 21 Browse by Subject at UNT This is a partial list of the subjects.

22. WVPT 2012 NTTI 22 Searching the CRS Reports on Immigration Number of results prior to refining search.

23. WVPT 2012 NTTI 23 Sorted results by Title and Date

24. WVPT 2012 NTTI 24 Records and Link to Full Report Select inside the image to connect to the download link.

25. Federation of American Scientists Note that FAS has a Google Custom Search engine (CSE) on its site  Searches content entered into its custom databases  Returns results ONLY from the www.fas.org website  Supports Google advanced search syntaxes WVPT 2012 NTTI 25 http://www.fas.org

26. FAS Google Site Search You must add “congressional research service” to the query to limit the results to CRS reports. WVPT 2012 NTTI 26 The Query “immigration policy” AND “congressional research service”

27. Search Results (124 results) WVPT 2012 NTTI 27 NOTE All the results have the phrases “immigration policy” AND “congressional research service” in the results and all results are from FAS.org.

28. WVPT 2012 NTTI 28 Google Site-limited Search FAS.org NOTE All the results have the phrase climate change and are from AEI.org. intitle:“climate change” AND “congressional research service” AND site:www.fas.org

29. WVPT 2012 NTTI 29 CRS Reports on Portaportal http://guest.portaportal.com/barroncrsreports Categories are organized by topic; for example, Agriculture, Foreign Policy, etc

30. WVPT 2012 NTTI 30 ProCon.org – 44 Controversial Issues NOTE There is a Sex & Gender Category that may be inappropriate for some students.

31. WVPT 2012 NTTI 31 ProCon.org’s Mission Statement "Promoting critical thinking, education, and informed citizenship by presenting controversial issues in a straightforward, nonpartisan, primarily pro-con format."

32. WVPT 2012 NTTI 32 Links to Micro Sites and “Learn More”

33. WVPT 2012 NTTI 33 I ssue : H uman A ctivity and G lobal C limate C hange

34. WVPT 2012 NTTI 34 Background with Names of Advocates Sources – Government agencies, think tanks, professional organizations

35. WVPT 2012 NTTI 35 Pro and Con Arguments with Source Links

36. WVPT 2012 NTTI 36 Video Gallery – Pro and Con Heartland Institute video challenging human causation of global climate change. Source: Heartland Institute, "Global Warming: Was It Ever Really A Crisis?," www.youtube.com (accessed July 13, 2011)

37. WVPT 2012 NTTI 37 R eaders’ C omments – What do your students think?

38. WVPT 2012 NTTI 38 Learn More – Footnotes & Sources This is only a partial list of the footnotes and resources on the topic.

39. WVPT 2012 NTTI 39 Learn More – S ource B iographies: I ndividuals

40. WVPT 2012 NTTI 40 Learn More – S ource B iographies: O rganizations

41. WVPT 2012 NTTI 41 Teachers’ Corner Lesson Plan Ideas not Plans

42. WVPT 2012 NTTI 42 Think Tanks are … … non-profit research organizations which engage in public policy analysis and research, and often advocate solutions.  Some are strictly nonpartisan, researching policy issues without regard to political outcomes, while others main functions is to providing intellectual support to politicians or parties. Not partisan; free from party affiliation, bias, or designation

43. WVPT 2012 NTTI 43 American Enterprise Institute - Conservative

44. WVPT 2012 NTTI 44 AEI Papers and Studies

45. WVPT 2012 NTTI 45 AEI Education Papers and Studies

46. WVPT 2012 NTTI 46 Center for American Progress (CAP) - Liberal

47. WVPT 2012 NTTI 47 CAP Publications Note the range of reports: business, economics, the environment, domestic policy, education, national security, and foreign affairs.

48. WVPT 2012 NTTI 48 Articles on Teacher Pay AEI Center for American Progress

49. WVPT 2012 NTTI 49 Google Site-limited Search intitle:”climate change” AND site:www.aei.org NOTE All the results have the phrase climate change and are from AEI.org.

50. WVPT 2012 NTTI 50 Google Site-limited Search intitle:”climate change” AND site:www.americanprogress.org

51. WVPT 2012 NTTI 51 Think Tanks on Portaportal Other Categories Conservative Directory of International Think Tanks Issue-oriented Liberal and Progressive Libertarian Lobbying Firms and Individuals Media Watch and Information Verification Think Tank Search Engine (Policybot) http://guest.portaportal.com/barronthinktanks

52. WVPT 2012 NTTI 52 Portaportal Online Bookmarks www.portaportal.com GUEST ACCESS LOGIN barroncrsreports barronthinktanks

53. WVPT 2012 NTTI 53 Research Strategy Recommendation Search Topic/Issue-oriented Source  IPL and INFOMINE are evaluated sources.  Use Portaportal – CRS Reports or Think Tanks http://guest.portaportal.com/barroncrsreports http://guest.portaportal.com/barronthinktanks For CRS Reports - Browse the UNT directory and search the UNT site Search Google with site-limited query  intitle:”the topic” AND site:think tank web’s address Bookmark the results 53

54. WVPT 2012 NTTI 54 Summary CRS Report and Think Tanks provide high quality non- partisan, but not unbiased, research articles and papers.  The authors and experts might answer your requests e-mail or phone. ProCon.org covers both sides of controversial issues.  E-mail Kami Akhavan with your comments and recommendations. kami@procon.org kami@procon.org Consider setting a Portaportal account for a topic.

55. Websites Cited Congressional Research Service -- http://www.loc.gov/crsinfo/ Library of Congress Science Tracer Bullets -- http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/ Federation of American Scientists -- http://www.fas.org INFOMINE -- http://infomine.ucr.edu/ WVPT 2012 NTTI 55

56. Websites Cited Internet Public Library -- http://www.ipl.org University of North Texas Digital Library -- http://digital.library.unt.edu/explore/collections/CRSR Portaportal Accounts -- http://guest.portaportal.com/barroncrsreports -- http://guest.portaportal.com/barronthinktanks WVPT 2012 NTTI 56